Yesterday I watched a few videos from the doc I linked in a thread below. I really like his videos. He doesn’t scold. He doesn’t accuse. He just lays out the case in a clear way.
That sort of an approach from our government officials would do way more to eliminate “vaccine hesitancy” than this finger-wagging, “our patience is running out” nonsense.
Honestly, Biden’s approach is so bad, the devil on my left shoulder is telling me he doesn’t actually want to encourage people to get the vaccine, he wants to use “the unvaccinated” as a wedge issue.
The extremes on this issue are absurd.
Some people on the right act as if the virus isn’t serious. No, folks. It’s deadly serious, and it’s killing lots of people.
Some people on the left act as if the solution is for a small collection of authorized people in white coats to tell all the rest of us what to do, and to ridicule anyone who has questions.
As I’ve said before, I would like to see a seminar where all the questions and the more prominent conspiracy theories are laid out on the table and examined. Calmly. Without accusations.
I know a young woman who has fears how the vaccines would affect pregnancy. That’s not a crazy fear, and wagging your finger at her and saying, “what else do we need to do?” is not going to solve it. Neither is some pat answer about a study. We all know there hasn’t been time for that, and you generally can’t do studies on pregnant women.
I know a young couple who both had Covid, and therefore have natural immunity. They don’t know why a vaccine is going to help them.
You can’t lump those sorts of fears in with the Bill Gates conspiracy theories and such. The “unvaccinated” are not all the same.
Let’s have a clear-headed, honest national discussion that treats this issue like a public health emergency it is and not like an opportunity to score partisan points.
Being more dubious about novel mRNA vaccines in this early stage of the game than traditional ones is also perfectly reasonable, IMO. Even for traditional vaccines, not wanting to be part of the first wave of post-trial recipients of a new vaccine — or any drug, really! — is a reasonable choice.
Bundling any questions up into being “anti-vax”, as if since some people have unjustified concerns about “toxins” or autism or whatever about vaccines in general, is great rhetoric but not convincing.
True story: in my past life I did contract work for Pfizer, modelling the likely outcomes of candidate drugs coming into use. Pharmaceutical companies often need to have third parties do independent evaluations, where we’re only given limited information about the results of the clinical trials, enough that we can make estimations without leaking too much about the details. So when it came time I was happy enough to get the Pfizer vaccine, even though it now seems Moderna may be slightly more effective: after all, if they were smart enough to pay me to run simulations for them, they can’t be *all* bad.
Yes, there are other legit concerns people have, and it’s just stupid to lump it all together into one “vaccine hesitant” category.
I’ll say it a million times. There is one person who could probably help, but he does not give a damn about his constituents.
I saw a commercial on PBS (while watching the Tim Burns’ Muhammad Ali documentary–highly recommended). Commercial had all living former presidents except one advocating the vaccine. It’s easy to guess which one didn’t participate. I don’t believe for one second he wasn’t asked. But, he doesn’t want to participate. I’m sure he thinks more Americans dying is better for his chance of regaining the White House in 2024. Honestly, tells you need to know about the man/worm.
Why would he want to participate, he’s already been boo’d by his mob when he mentioned it at a rally? As well, it might hamper his fundraising efforts…he gets more money and notoriety with demagoguery than altruism.
“I don’t believe for one second he wasn’t asked. ”
I do. Maybe even 20 or 30 seconds.